West Ham's Loss to Crystal Palace Is the Final Nail in Top-4-Challenge Coffin

UPTON PARK, LONDON — West Ham United's flailing Premier League top-four challenge took a disastrous turn on Saturday afternoon as they lost 3-1 at home to Crystal Palace. Alan Pardew, a 1-0 winner at Upton Park earlier this season with his Newcastle United side, enjoyed another sweet return to his old stomping ground.

The defeat compounded a month of misery for Sam Allardyce; following late concessions against Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur—two games in which they were much the better side but failed to collect all three points—they dropped a real clanger here.

The enormity of the loss is clear: With three points gained over the course of February (the other coming from a 0-0 draw with Southampton), the Hammers' grip on a top-four chase has slipped dramatically. It's even arguable, even with 11 games to go, that the fight is over.

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Clearly, West Ham focused on holding onto leads this week. It's been a problem, and Allardyce admitted in the programme notes that while they respect Palace as a team, they'd be looking to play their own game and then retain the spoils:

"We have reviewed all of our recent matches and will be working extremely hard on not relinquishing valuable leads in future. The challenge is to maintain those leads and ensure we collect the points our efforts have warranted."

Except the opportunity to hold a lead never occurred; it didn't seem as though they'd even considered that they may fall behind in this game.

West Ham were flat and uninspiring throughout; the home fans' moans and groans at the half-time whistle—then only 1-0 down—were fully justified. It's as if only half the players had truly awoken for the Premier League's early kick-off, with Alex Song the main culprit.

Mark Noble cannoned a free-kick against the top of the crossbar early in the first period, but that was the only attack of note from the Hammers. As Crystal Palace found their feet and grew into the game more and more, their danger on the counter-attack grew.

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That the away side scored all three goals from set pieces—a remarkable feat given they were playing against Allardyce—doesn't tell the story. The Eagles were ferocious in transitions, with Wilfried Zaha, Jason Puncheon and Yannick Bolasie able to stretch out and run three vs. three.

Had Zaha's decision-making been better (stop me if you've heard this before), Palace could have scored five.

"It's a real frustration for us based on the expectation the fans have been giving. I really didn't see this coming today," Allardyce admitted in the post-match press conference. "But we've got to accept it; we let ourselves down.

"Turning performance into victories is the hardest thing at this level and we've really slipped up at that. We're letting that qualifying-for-Europe scenario slip."

West Ham are without a win in six attempts (all competitions) and face a succession of Chelsea (home) and Arsenal (away) next. On paper it's two losses—and the form book hardly disagrees—conceivably leaving the Hammers on 39 points with nine games to play.

February has not treated the Irons well. Their top-four pursuit has been killed over the last 28 days, with this horrific loss the final nail in the coffin.

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